arXiv subjects

J. Chergui

Publications and source records attributed to J. Chergui.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Surfactant-laden breaking wave: regular and spilling regimes

We investigate the influence of insoluble surfactants on the spatio-temporal evolution of breaking waves, focusing on both regular and spilling regimes. Three-dimensional direct numerical simulations are conducted using an interface-tracking/level-set method that incorporates surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses. The simulations reveal that surfactant gradients, through Marangoni stresses, markedly alter the wave dynamics. While regular breakers exhibit only minor modifications in the presence of surfactants, increasing surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses in spilling breakers leads to pronounced changes in the crest evolution, vorticity generation, and even a transition towards plunging-like behavior. To quantify these effects, we also extend circulation-based theoretical frameworks to account for surfactant contributions. This work demonstrates the crucial role that surfactants play in the dynamics of breaking waves, revealing that their impact is primarily driven by Marangoni stresses rather than surface tension reduction.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Impact of droplets onto surfactant-laden thin liquid films

We study the effect of insoluble surfactants on the impact of surfactant-free droplets on surfactant-laden thin liquid films via a fully three-dimensional direct numerical simulations approach that employs a hybrid interface-tracking/level-set method, and by taking into account surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses due to gradients in interfacial surfactant concentration. Our numerical predictions for the temporal evolution of the surfactant-free crown are validated against the experimental work by Che and Matar (2017). We focus on the crown-splash regime, and we observe that the crown dynamics evolves through various stages: from the the growth of linear modes (through a Rayleigh- Plateau instability) to the development of nonlinearities leading to primary and secondary breakup events (through droplet shedding modulated by an end-pinching mechanism). We show that the addition of surfactants does not affect the wave selection via the Rayleigh-Plateau instability. However, the presence of surfactants plays a key role in the late stages of the dynamics as soon as the ligaments are driven out from the rim. Surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses delay the end-pinching mechanisms to result in longer ligaments prior to their capillary singularity, while also promoting the spanwise merging between ligaments. Finally, we show that the addition of surfactants leads to surface rigidification and consequently to the retardation of the flow dynamics.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent jets: vortex-interface-surfactant interactions

We study the effect of insoluble surfactants on the spatio-temporal evolution of turbulent jets. We use three-dimensional numerical simulations and employ an interface-tracking/level-set method that accounts for surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses. The present study builds on our previous work (Constante et al., 2021, J. Fluid Mech., 922, A6) in which we examined in detail the vortex-surface interaction in the absence of surfactants. Numerical solutions are obtained for a wide range of Weber and elasticity numbers in which vorticity production is generated by surface deformation and surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses. The present work demonstrates, for the first time, the crucial role of Marangoni stresses, brought about by surfactant concentration gradients, in the formation of coherent, hairpin-like vortex structures. These structures have a profound influence on the development of the three-dimensional interfacial dynamics. We also present theoretical expressions for the mechanisms that influence the rate of production of circulation in the presence of surfactants for a general, three-dimensional, two-phase flow and highlight the dominant contribution of Marangoni stresses.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Role of kidney stones in renal pelvis flow

We examine the time-dependent flow dynamics inside an idealised renal pelvis in the context of a surgical procedure for kidney stone removal, extending previous work by Williams et al. (2020,2021), who showed how vortical flow structures can hinder mass transport in a canonical two-dimensional domain. Here, we examine the time-dependent evolution of these vortical flow structures in three-dimensions, and incorporate the presence of rigid kidney stones. We perform direct numerical simulations, solving the transient Navier-Stokes equations in a spherical domain. The results shed light on the crucial role of flow circulation in the renal cavity and its effect on the trajectories of rigid stones. We demonstrate that stones can either be washed out of the cavity along with the fluid, or be trapped in the cavity via their interaction with vortical flow structures. Additionally, we study the effect of multiple stones in the flow field within the cavity in terms of the kinetic energy, entrapped fluid volume, and the clearance rate of a passive tracer modelled via an advection--diffusion equation. We demonstrate that the flow in the presence of stones features a higher vorticity production within the cavity compared with the stone-free cases.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Role of surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses in retracting liquid sheets

In this work, we study the effect of insoluble surfactants on the three-dimensional rim-driven retraction dynamics of thin water sheets in air. We employ an interface-tracking/level-set method to ensure the full coupling between the surfactant-induced Marangoni-stresses, interfacial diffusion, and inertia. Our findings are contrasted with the (Newtonian) dynamics of a liquid sheet edge finding that the surfactant concentration can prevent, or delay, the breakup of the rim. Our simulations use the fastest growing Rayleigh-Plateau instability to drive droplet detachment from the fluid sheet (rim). The results of this work unravel the significant role of Marangoni stresses in the retracting sheet dynamics at large elasticity numbers. We study the sensitivity of the dynamics to the elasticity number and the rigidification of the interface.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Role of surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses in drop-interface coalescence

We study the effect of surfactants on the dynamics of a drop-interface coalescence using full three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. We employ a hybrid interface-tracking/level-set method, which takes into account Marangoni stresses that arise from surface tension gradients, interfacial and bulk diffusion, and sorption kinetic effects. We validate our predictions against the experimental data of Blanchette and Bigioni [Nat. Phys. 2(4):254-257 (2006)] and perform a parametric study that demonstrates the delicate interplay between the flow fields and those associated with the surfactant bulk and interfacial concentrations. The results of this work unravel the crucial role of the Marangoni stresses in the flow physics of coalescence with particular attention paid to their influence on neck reopening dynamics in terms of stagnation-point inhibition, and near-neck vorticity generation. We demonstrate that surfactant-laden cases feature a rigidifying effect on the interface compared to the surfactant-free case, a mechanism that underpins the observed surfactant-induced phenomena.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Dynamics of retracting surfactant-laden ligaments at intermediate Ohnesorge number

The dynamics of ligaments retracting under the action of surface tension occurs in a multitude of natural and industrial applications, such as inkjet printing and atomisation. We perform fully three-dimensional, two-phase direct numerical simulations of the retraction dynamics with soluble surfactants. A full parametric study is performed using a hybrid interface-tracking/level-set method, which is utilised to treat the interface; this method is capable of capturing faithfully the topological transitions that are a feature of the flow over a certain range of ligament aspect ratios and Ohnesorge numbers. Our results demonstrate the delicate interplay between capillarity, modulated by the presence of surfactants, surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses, inertial and viscous effects. Particular attention is paid to the formation of vortices, which accompany the retraction process, and the influence of surfactant on the vortex dynamics.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Rico and the jets: Direct numerical simulations of turbulent liquid jets

This paper is associated with a poster winner of a 2019 American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) Milton van Dyke Award for work presented at the DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion. The original poster is available online at the Gallery of Fluid Motion, https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2019.GFM.P0020

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Dynamics of a surfactant-laden bubble bursting through an interface

We study the effect of surfactant on the dynamics of a bubble bursting through an interface. We perform fully three-dimensional direct numerical simulations using a hybrid interface-tracking/level-set method accounting for surfactant-induced Marangoni stresses, sorption kinetics, and diffusive effects. We select an initial bubble shape corresponding to a large Laplace number and a vanishingly small Bond number in order to neglect gravity, and isolate the effects of surfactant on the flow. Our results demonstrate that the presence of surfactant affects the dynamics of the system through Marangoni-induced flow, driving motion from high to low concentration regions, which is responsible for the onset of a recirculation zone close to the free surface. These Marangoni stresses rigidify the interface, delay the cavity collapse, and influence the jet breakup process.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2015

Numerical simulation of super-square patterns in Faraday waves

We report the first simulations of the Faraday instability using the full three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations in domains much larger than the characteristic wavelength of the pattern. We use a massively parallel code based on a hybrid Front-Tracking/Level-set algorithm for Lagrangian tracking of arbitrarily deformable phase interfaces. Simulations performed in rectangular and cylindrical domains yield complex patterns. In particular, a superlattice-like pattern similar to those of [Douady & Fauve, Europhys. Lett. 6, 221-226 (1988); Douady, J. Fluid Mech. 221, 383-409 (1990)] is observed. The pattern consists of the superposition of two square superlattices. We conjecture that such patterns are widespread if the square container is large compared to the critical wavelength. In the cylinder, pentagonal cells near the outer wall allow a square-wave pattern to be accommodated in the center.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2014

A Solver for Massively Parallel Direct Numerical Simulation of Three-Dimensional Multiphase Flows

We present a new solver for massively parallel simulations of fully three-dimensional multiphase flows. The solver runs on a variety of computer architectures from laptops to supercomputers and on 65536 threads or more (limited only by the availability to us of more threads). The code is wholly written by the authors in Fortran 2003 and uses a domain decomposition strategy for parallelization with MPI. The fluid interface solver is based on a parallel implementation of the LCRM hybrid Front Tracking/Level Set method designed to handle highly deforming interfaces with complex topology changes. We discuss the implementation of this interface method and its particular suitability to distributed processing where all operations are carried out locally on distributed subdomains. We have developed parallel GMRES and Multigrid iterative solvers suited to the linear systems arising from the implicit solution of the fluid velocities and pressure in the presence of strong density and viscosity discontinuities across fluid phases. Particular attention is drawn to the details and performance of the parallel Multigrid solver. The code includes modules for flow interaction with immersed solid objects, contact line dynamics, species and thermal transport with phase change. Here, however, we focus on the simulation of the canonical problem of drop splash onto a liquid film and report on the parallel performance of the code on varying numbers of threads. The 3D simulations were run on mesh resolutions up to $1024^3$ with results at the higher resolutions showing the fine details and features of droplet ejection, crown formation and rim instability observed under similar experimental conditions. Keywords:

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